Eesti in brief

Early in the morning of July 6, a transport aircraft C-17 landed at the Amari Air Base with three of the last members of the Defense Forces to serve in the Helmand Province in Afghanistan and part of the returned equipment on board, reports Postimees Online. The last members of the Defense Forces to serve in Helmand Province had started their mission in the ranks of the logistics unit NSE-17 in April, with the task of maintenance of equipment and arms used in Afghanistan, their preparation for transport and dispatching them to Estonia. According to plans, last batches of technology and equipment will return to Estonia by end of September.

In comparison with their peers in other countries, Estonian students in primary schools have very good financial literacy skills, revealed the PISA 2012 test, reports Postimees Online. Among 18 countries that took part in the test, Estonian 15-year-olds ranked third after Shanghai and Belgium. A total of 1,088 pupils in Estonia took the financial literacy test. From among countries taking part in the test, Estonia was the only one where students’ socio-economic background did not have any significant impact on the results. This confirms the results of the PISA principal study and of the problem-solving skills test; socio-economic background affects young persons’ skill levels much less in Estonia than in other countries taking part in the test.

Climate Action Network, or CAN, Europe published ‘Europe’s Dirty 30’ report, which ranked 30 European energy plants that pollute the environment the most, reports Postimees Online. According to the report, Poland, Germany and the United Kingdom are among the worst polluters. Estonia’s oil shale-based power plant Eesti Elektrijaam in Narva is at the 15th position among Europe’s ‘dirtiest’ power stations, emitting 10.6 Mt of CO2 per year into the air. It was the only power plant from the Nordic and Baltic countries to be included in the list. The TOP 3 were Beltchatow power plant in Poland with 36.1 Mt of CO2 per year, followed by Neurath in Germany and Niederaussem in Germany, which all use lignite as fuel.